


For You

by TurnUps



Category: Fruits Basket, Fruits Basket (Anime 2001), Fruits Basket (Anime 2019), Fruits Basket - Takaya Natsuki (Manga)
Genre: Adoptive family, Father/Son, Fluff, Found Family, Other, Tooth Rotting Fluff, and kyo is scared to get too close to anyone, but he is new at children, kazumas trying his best, to trick kyo into telling him stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:42:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22147360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TurnUps/pseuds/TurnUps
Summary: Kyo was used to crying quietly.He was used to finding small, dark spaces and fitting himself into them. Good at taking breaths that made no sound, even if they did wrack his whole body. Even if his chest felt tight and he couldn’t breathe, he was good at muffling his mouth with his hands. Or his jumper. That way no one would find him – no one could find him. That way he could have some privacy. He didn’t have to worry about anyone finding him. It was when they found him that they got mad. Or sighed and rolled their eyes. Or curled their top lip upward.Kazuma didn’t find him for the first week.And then he did.
Relationships: Sohma Kazuma & Sohma Kyou
Comments: 29
Kudos: 154





	1. Chapter 1

Kyo was used to crying quietly.

He was used to finding small, dark spaces and fitting himself into them. Good at taking breaths that made no sound, even if they did wrack his whole body. Even if his chest felt tight and he couldn’t breathe, he was good at muffling his mouth with his hands. Or his jumper. That way no one would find him – no one _could_ find him. That way he could have some privacy. He didn’t have to worry about anyone finding him. It was when they found him that they got mad. Or sighed and rolled their eyes. Or curled their top lip upward.

Kazuma didn’t find him for the first week.

He had called around for Kyo. Kyo had gotten good at holding his breath. At counting footsteps wherever he walked so he knew how many it would take for someone to leave again. So Kazuma hadn’t been able to find the particular cupboard that Kyo had crammed himself into, with his knees against his chest and his feet underneath him.

That meant Kyo had got comfortable. He normally switched it up, found wherever was possible. But this time he didn’t think he would be found. Didn’t think that anyone would care to find him. So he let his guard down. When his chest had felt so tight that he thought he was going to shatter into pieces – when every muscle ached like he’d ran all day and all night – when he felt like he couldn’t bear it any longer – he hid in that cupboard. Got comfortable and just tried to get it out.

And jumped out of his skin when the door opened. He was suddenly looking up at Kazuma’s brown eyes. The sun shone around him like a halo.

“So, there you are.”

There was a narrow airing cupboard he’d found downstairs. Most of the space was taken up by a boiler, but he could squeeze himself under it quite comfortably. It was warm and dry and hidden.

Evidently, not hidden enough.

Kyo would deny it, but he made a sound like a hissing cat and buried his face in his arms. It brought him some time to wipe his tears away.

“Playing hide and seek. Go away.” His voice still sounded wobbly, and his lip trembled as he frowned at the man.

People normally left him alone. Or dragged him out from wherever he was hiding, kicking and screaming. They didn’t sit back on their heels, still smiling, and ask, “and who are you playing hide and seek against?”

Kyo blinked. It caught him off-guard. There weren’t normally questions – he didn’t know how to deal with questions.

“Can I play?” Kazuma asked, still smiling that gentle smile.

Kyo frowned at him. This was a trick. It had to be. “No.”

“It can’t be much fun playing by yourself.”

“I’m not playing by myself.”

Kazuma stayed. Kyo glared. Maybe if he glared long enough it would just make him go away. Go away and forgot this ever happened. If there was one thing Kyo Sohma didn’t do, it was cry.

“We could play a different game then. We could list all of the things that worry us.”

Now Kyo really scowled. It was an obvious, cheap tactic. “That sounds stupid.”

Someone else would have told him off for taking that tone. Kazuma just laughed – his eyes wrinkling.

“I admit it doesn’t sound like fun. But my worry right now is that you’ll fall asleep and flick the switch to turn our boiler off. Then the house would get cold.”

“So?” Kyo rested his chin back on his knees, determined not to be swayed by a kind smile.

“So now it’s your turn.”

“I’m not scared of anything.”

“I figured. It’s very brave to sit in the cupboard without a light.”

Kyo shrugged. He liked the dark. You couldn’t see in the dark. It was like night – you could pretend everything was just a bad dream and it would be okay once you crawled back into the light.

“How about the shuffling out of the cupboard so I can get to the fresh towels game?”

“No.” Now he expected to get told off. Surely that would be crossing the line.

But Kazuma just shrugged, and stood. “Okay. I guess we won’t be able to have baths tonight.”

He went to close the cupboard, casually, but Kyo’s hand stopped him. With a little wriggling, he came free of the cupboard and into the kitchen. He refused to look at Kazuma, sensing that omnipresent smile growing wider.

“It’s because _you_ need a bath,” Kyo mumbled.

The smile was still there, accompanied by a twinkle in the eye. “Is that right?”

“You smell funny.” Kyo nodded.

Then jumped out of his skin when he felt fingers on the top of his head. It shocked him so much that he didn’t even move out of the way – just stared upwards. That was a soft movement – a movement that cared.

“You’ve gotten all dusty,” Kazuma said.

"Don't care." Kyo batted the hand away. He had to. If he wasn’t prickly and rude then they would get close. He'd start to like this man. And there was no way this man could like him.

“Again, you’re very brave.” Kazuma’s hand lingered, just a few seconds longer than it should have, over Kyo’s hair. A small part of Kyo thought about taking hold of it, pressing it back against him. It had felt comforting – it had felt safe.

But Kazuma was also trying too hard to appease him.

“It’s only dust,” Kyo scoffed.

“If you’re that brave, you’d be able to reach back in and pull the towels out for me.”

Kyo knew it was a trick. It was obviously a trick. And yet, he’d been challenged. So of course, he had to do it. He reached back into the cupboard and came out with armfuls of soft, white towels.

“Good job, Kyo.”

He froze completely, staring up at this man. As the warm, brown eyes like Valentine chocolates, and long, red brown hair. Kyo had never seen a man with hair that long, but it didn’t look bad. It made him look more like a kung fu master than anything, which he had to admit, was quite a cool thing to look like. And he had said Kyo’s name. Normally. No one said it. No one said it like that. Like it wasn’t a bad thing, or he wasn’t about to get told off.

He’d said it like it was a tender, precious thing.

His mom had said it like that. Just a few times – enough to make him think she really loved him.

He dropped the towels. They landed with a flump on the floor, spreading themselves out in ghostly shapes across the wooden floor.

Kazuma just laughed, “oh, my turn to carry them, then?”

He’d bent down to pick them up, still smiling – until he looked at Kyo. At the firsts balled to his sides and the fact he’d ducked his head. Probably not ducked enough to hide his clenched jaw but ducked enough to hide the eyes he was screwing up tight. If he closed them tight enough, then tears wouldn’t leak out.

“Kyo-“

“Leave me alone.” Kyo’s voice sounded warbly, like a baby birds.

“Okay.” Kazuma stood, his arms full of the towels. “What about hot chocolate whilst you’re alone? Or warm milk?”

Despite his better judgement, he nodded at the thought of warm milk.

Kazuma stepped around him. Left him struggling to contain everything that was inside him. It felt like a whole universe was exploding in his chest and he couldn’t do anything about it. Just had to let everything explode into tiny tears that streaked down his cheeks.

He could hear the microwave turning. His mom had always made hot milk on the stove – that set off a chain reaction of explosions. One for almost every tick of the microwave. He pressed his hands over his mouth to muffle the sound.

It seemed like forever until the microwave dinged and he heard Kazuma’s gentle voice say, “you want to come and sit under the kotatsu with it?”

He sounded very far away. Kyo shook his head vigorously. He wanted to go back under the boiler – back into hiding. But the towels had gone, and the stone floor looked cold and hard. He wanted to be warm.

So, he turned back, stepping towards Kazuma's legs and trying to gather the courage to take a fistful of that material. Or rest his head there. The most he could manage was to glance up and find dark eyes watching him.

But he didn't say anything, Kazuma just padded back into the living room like a cat and settled himself at the kotatsu. He placed the hot milk next to him, and then looked away.

Kyo hesitated.

Then he crept over and settled himself down on one of the cushions. He pulled the blanket over his knees, then rested his chin on his arms. Kazuma still wasn't looking at him - instead gazing pointedly out at the window.

Kyo moved slowly - as if he would be caught at any moment - reaching both hands out to cup the mug of hot milk. He pulled it slowly towards him.

"It will get a skin if you don't drink it soon."

He jumped. A slop of milk dropped onto the table. Kazuma still didn't glance at it. So, carefully, he raised the milk to his mouth and sipped. The skin had already been taken off - just like his mom knew to always do. She'd crinkle her nose and smile and say, "only the worst people like the skin on milk."

If Kazuma took it off, that meant he was probably a good person. Well, Kyo knew that. He was either very good - bordering on Saintly - or there was something wrong with his head, for him to take in the child cursed by the cat. Must be good. Kyo _wanted_ him to be good - he wanted to like this man.

He thought he did.

But he shouldn't. Because then he would get hurt. Because this man wouldn't like him. Not once he got to know him. He'd grow to hate Kyo once he got to know him. Once he saw Kyo's true form.

His eyes fell onto the beads on his wrist.

This time when he raised the mug to his lips and looked up, he caught Kazuma's eye. It was only for a moment. Just a moment of brown-red looking into brown. Heat rushed through Kyo’s cheeks and he frowned into his milk.

Kazuma’s fingers twitched on the table. He seemed to wait until Kyo had taken another tentative sip before he said, “that was my grandfather’s bracelet.”

Kyo put the cup down. He kept his hands on it because they had started to tremble. Because he was suddenly tempted to throw of the bracelet and get this over with – get Kazuma to hate him.

It explained it all. It explained why he had taken Kyo in. That should have annoyed him – it should have made him furious. Instead, he was curious.

He was curious enough that he whispered, “was he nice?”

There was a long, terrible moment of silence. Kazuma closed his eyes.

“Yes,” he said. “I only met him once, but, yes, he was a very kind man.”

Kyo put the cup to his mouth, but didn’t drink. He hid behind it, because all he could smell was milk.

“I’m not kind.”

Warm eyes turned to him. He stayed firmly behind his cup.

“You are,” Kazuma said.

Kyo snorted, and milk spurted back on his cheeks. He put it down and wiped his face with the back of his hand.

“Not,” he muttered. “I’m selfish and have anger issues.” When Kazuma opened his mouth to argue, Kyo scowled and continued. “That’s what my dad said.”

Kazuma raised a hand and Kyo watched it. Watched it come to a halt in the air – halfway to Kyo’s head.

“You’re a very kind boy, Kyo,” Kazuma said. His head slowly came back down and rested on the table. “Trust me.”

That did something in Kyo’s chest. Not quite an explosion. More of an implosion – there was a sudden burst of warmth. It made him feel as though he was glowing. He had to hide that – he shouldn’t get comfortable here – shouldn’t like Kazuma.

So he took another sip of milk.

“But I have anger issues,” Kyo said.

It surprised him when Kazuma just shrugged. Those eyes were still fixed on him – still warm and sparkling and why wasn’t he angry yet? It made him squirm. Things normally went bad from here.

“Maybe,” Kazuma said. “That doesn’t change that you’re a good kid.”

Kyo was still scowling, and now he directed the full force of it onto the man in front of him. Must have something wrong with his head. It was the only explanation. Almost everyone Kyo knew would disagree. So he shook his head and downed the rest of his milk.

Then he sat, still scowling in silence. At least the kotatsu was warm. His legs were underneath it, taking the heat all the way up to his chest.

“I do run a dojo,” Kazuma continued, quietly. His fingers twitched on the table. Kyo remembered them brushing dust from his hair – how gentle it was – and tried to decide if he wanted it again. No. He couldn’t let anyone get close. But he was screaming for that touch again. It was the same kind of movement his mother did – and he missed it. He missed it with all of his heart.

“I know.” Kyo tried to growl.

“I think if you trained there, it would give you somewhere to direct that anger. I think it would help.”

Kyo thought about that. Martial arts were cool. They were the coolest thing to watch on t.v - not just the movies were the guys were on wires and spent way too long back flipping - the real martial arts battles too. So the guys who did them must be cool too. Wouldn't be the kind of person that people curled their lips and scrunched their noses up at.

The kind of person like Kazuma. Who definitely was a little weird in the head, but who coaxed him out of the cupboard and made him hot milk and was being patient. A kind person.

Kyo wanted to be a kind person. Wanted to be like Kazuma, if he was one hundred percent honest.

Wanted to like Kazuma, because it felt like he was in the middle of a tornado and Kazuma was the only one offering him a hand out.

He wasn't like Kyo's mom.

But maybe that wasn't so bad.

So Kyo nodded, slowly at first, but then rapidly as he thought about what that might mean. That he'd become a martial arts master - a legend - and maybe they'd let a legend be part of the zodiac.

"I'd like that," he said.

Kazuma looked at him then, with creases in the corners of his eyes and mouth. With eyes that sparkled.

"I'd like that too."

Kyo's chest felt bubbly - felt like it was full of cola that was about to over spill. His cheeks felt like they were going to burst too - prickly all over. He looked down at the empty mug of milk to hide the grin that was threatening to engulf him. If he was in his cat form, he would have been purring.

Which was good, because that was embarrassing.

"And you know, martial arts masters - they've mastered their feelings too," Kazuma continued. His fingers twitched on the table. Kyo glanced up, back to concerned eyes instead of happy eyes. "They share the things that upset them."

Kyo frowned - poured, but he would have denied that.

And to his surprise, Kazuma chuckled. A warm chuckle - to match the warm eyes and warm smile.

"It was worth a shot," he said and, to his own surprise, Kyo found his own lips curling upwards. "But as _I_ was so worried, can I have a hug?

Kazuma opened his arms, his wide sleeves falling down like butterfly wings. He was being painfully obvious again – but if he was as warm as his chuckle was – then Kyo wanted to. The kotastu was warm, but it was empty. And it had been a long time – a very long time – since he had a hug. Had let himself be hugged.

So Kyo gave in. He shuffled forward and half-fell onto Kazuma’s chest. It was like he had suddenly forgotten how to hug another person – his arms just stuck out like sticks.

But then Kazuma’s arms – butterfly wing sleeves – wrapped themselves around him and pulled him closer. Almost too tight – tight enough to make Kyo take a deep breath. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been hugged so tight. The last time he had been hugged by someone who seemed to mean it.

And he hadn’t checked for Kyo’s bracelet. He hadn’t caught his wrist and ran his fingers over the bead just to make sure that it hadn’t slipped off.

Kyo could hear a heartbeat under his ear. Kazuma’s heartbeat. It was strong and slow – a steady rhythm like waves crashing into the shore. His eyes were closed and his arms found themselves hugging back. He didn’t even need to think about it, and could hardly reach around Kazuma’s back. But that was fine. For once, being little felt safe. Kazuma was wrapped around him, Kyo bundled into his lap, and he was protected.

This was better than the airing cupboard.

His chest felt as though it was going to explode all over again. No, not quite explode. It was more like fireworks. The pain was still there and he still wanted to cry, but there was something else too. A good feeling. A feeling that he thought he would never feel again.

“Does this help?” Kazuma murmured. His hand was rubbing slow circles into Kyo’s back, and he knew he would have purred at that too. His mom didn’t do that. When she had hugged him, she had rubbed her hand up and down his back.

Kyo hesitated. They were both unconvincing, he realised. Kazuma wasn’t good at tricking Kyo into talking about his feelings, and Kyo wasn’t good at hiding them. So, he nodded, burying his head further into gray fabric. It was soft and smelt like fresh mint. His mom had smelt like vanilla.

“Better than hiding in cupboards?” Kazuma pressed.

Kyo started to shake his head – it wasn’t dark and it wasn’t hidden enough for his liking. But it was warmer, and smelt like mint. He was being squeezed just enough to make him feel cared about.

He felt _cared_ about.

So he shrugged, and buried himself closer. He felt Kazuma chuckle underneath him – felt the vibrations of it and wanted to feel it again. But he wouldn’t admit that. Kazuma was a good person – he was _good_ and Kyo didn’t think that he would dislike Kyo. Kazuma was smiling and chuckling so much when he was trying to hard to be angry and mean. He probably wouldn’t dislike Kyo. Not for a while at least. There was still a distance to keep.

And it was the principle of the thing.

“So, instead of risking turning off my hot water, will you come find me instead?” Kazuma asked, very quietly and very gently.

Kyo squeezed his eyes tighter. No. He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to have Kazuma know, or see, or have the chance to hate him.

But Kyo was here. They were hugging. And Kazuma wasn’t pulling away.

Kazuma hadn’t checked his bracelet.

Yet, Kyo wasn’t crying. He felt like it, but he wasn’t. Maybe that would change.

He didn’t want it to change. It couldn’t change.

The silence had gone on for too long. Kazuma’s circles widened and Kyo wiggled under it. He wasn’t sure if he liked it or not.

“You don’t have to say anything. You can just grab my leg, okay? It’s for me, Kyo. Because _I’m_ worried, okay?”

“Okay.” Kyo’s voice was muffled. He pulled his head away and his forehead jutted against Kazuma’s chin. He didn’t want to look up and see those dark eyes again. “Because _you’re_ worried.”

_There_ was that chuckle again. That chuckle should have been annoying, but it just set off another rocket in his chest.

His cheeks were burning and he could feel his lips curling upwards. To hide it, he dived back into Kazuma’s chest and buried himself down, like a hedgehog burying into his nest.

This was good.

It could all go wrong – it probably would all go wrong – but for now, he would try not to hide in the cupboards to cry.

Not for himself.

For Kazuma


	2. Trying Too Hard

Kazuma really was trying too hard.

It was easy to be cynical about his efforts to cover up any other feelings that Kyo had. In fact, it was easier to stay prickly and dubious because then it wouldn’t hurt as much if anything went wrong. Something had to go wrong.

But Kazuma had found Kyo’s hiding place. He had coaxed him out and given him space until he had let himself be hugged. Like a stray cat, Kyo had thought – all it had taken was a saucer of milk. And though he had been suspicious of just tugging on Kazuma’s leg when there was something wrong, he had tried it. When it felt as though the black hole in his chest was doubling in size.

When he did, Kazuma glanced at him. It didn’t matter if he was in the middle of class, or cleaning or trying to cook dinner. It was a simple glance down, then his fingers would ran across the top of Kyo’s head, just brushing his hair, and then – if he was in class, he would excuse himself – hot milk was made. And Kazuma would ask if Kyo wanted to talk about it, and Kyo wouldn’t.

So Kyo had to stay prickly the rest of the time to make up for those times. Had to stay cynical just in case Kazuma’s kindness ran dry.

Today, the man had brought half the shop’s worth of fireworks, three huge watermelons and a huge bag of sand. It was a ridiculous amount of items to scream ‘Summer.’

“I can’t get away from the dojo long enough to go on a trip to the beach,” Kazuma explained, grinning. “So I thought we’d have to make our own.”

Kyo remained staring at the purchases, taking up half of the living room. The T.V was still on, competing against the chirp of cicadas outside. He felt the same inside. Half of him wanted to jump up and grin. Fireworks! Smashing melons! A beach without the sea! All the things that would make Summer fun. The other half was full of memories of his mother. They would watch fireworks, and smash watermelons. How could Kazuma expect him to do those things with him?

Without her?

“I don’t like the beach,” he muttered, because Kazuma was still smiling at him and expecting him to say something.

One of the melons rolled out of the bag and across the hard word.

“I don’t think that’s true.” Kazuma slipped off his shoes, and knelt down, his finger pointing up as though he had just had an idea. “I think you don’t like the sea. My grandfather didn’t like it either. That’s why this is perfect.”

Kyo bristled. It _was_ perfect. And it wasn’t fair that Kazuma understood that – understood _him_ so well.

“It’ll make a mess.”

“That doesn’t matter. We’ll have Kunimitsu clear it up!”

Kunimitsu was actually in the kitchen – and he yelled, “hey!”

It made Kyo smile – he had to bite his cheeks to stop Kazuma from seeing. He didn’t want to understand why Kunimitsu helped out so much, but he did. Kazuma was the kind of person that tried hard to make everything better – make everyone happy. No wonder he’d want to stay even when he didn’t have to.

Kyo tolerated him, mainly because he was a better chef than Kazuma was. And Kunimitsu watched T.V and was good at acting it out. Sometimes, he was close to making Kyo laugh.

“So, what first?” Kazuma asked. Clearly he saw that Kyo was giving in.

“Fireworks,” Kyo said. He fought to keep himself from smiling – to keep his expression as earnest as he could.

He’d thought that Kazuma would frown at him and tell him off for being silly. Thought that maybe he would roll his eyes and tell Kyo he was being difficult now.

Instead, he smiled too. “Fireworks sounds great.”

He even grabbed a handful, as he stood, turning as though he was taking them outside. It made Kyo stand and stare at him – surely he wasn’t going to release them in the day? He padded after him, ready to be the responsible adult and tell him off.

But then Kazuma stopped short. So suddenly that Kyo bumped into his legs. He stepped away, quickly, feeling his cheeks grow warm.

Kazuma tapped his own forehead, as though he had _just_ realised the absurdity of what he was doing.

“Although…” he said. Glancing at Kyo, and then away again. “There’s nothing like fireworks whilst you’re sat on the sand…have you ever seen a fireworks display on the beach, Kyo?”

Kyo shook his head before he could remember he was supposed to be opposed to all of this.

“Have you ever wanted to?”

“We were going to.” Kyo surprised himself by how defensive he sounded. He looked away from Kazuma, to the bag of sand instead. There was a picture of two kids playing on it, both way too happy. “Next year. If I was good.”

He expected an awkward silence after that. For Kazuma to stumble and try and say something about _her_. And that would make everything worse because there was nothing right that he could say about her. She was special and just remembering her face as she had said it to Kyo made his chest tight and sore.

Kazuma knelt down, and placed the fireworks to one side. Kyo stayed hidden behind his hiar, so that even if Kazuma tilted his head, he wouldn’t be able to see him.

His fingers grazed Kyo’s shoulder. “Well, you have been a good boy, so I’m going to make a beach and later we’ll have fireworks.”

Kyo shook his head. “I haven’t. Not at all.”

“You have, under the circumstances.” Kazuma’s fingers grew bolder, so that his hand rested on Kyo’s shoulder. Just gently. Just enough to feel himself grounded to the floor when the world was just starting to spin. “You lost someone very close to you. And that’s a hard thing for most grown ups to deal with.”

Kyo gritted his teeth. His chest was very tight now – so tight that he was finding it hard to breathe – and everything that he had thought he was starting to move away from was coming crashing back to him.

Kazuma was wrong. He was so very wrong and it was clear he was just saying what he thought he should say, as opposed to what was the truth. But it was more soothing to hear – it was like having Kazuma’s arms around him again, that he didn’t want to break the spell.

“You’re very strong,” Kazuma continued. He paused. “Strong enough to help my get that bag of sand out into the garden, I would think.”

Kyo looked at it. It was big – almost as big as he was, and he would bet that it was heavier too. But Kazuma thought that he could lift it – and here was a strange part of him that desperately wanted to prove him right.

So he found himself scoffing. Found himself saying, “that’s easy.”

It wasn’t. It was heavy, and Kyo struggled to keep it off the floor as he took half and Kazuma took the other half. He staggered under the weight, almost tripping down the front steps as went through the front door.

There was a huge, white sheet spread out in the grass, just off from the path. This was planned, then. And Kazuma had thought about the mess, even if he pretended he hadn’t.

Kazuma stopped them, when the sand bag was half on the sheet.

“That’ll do,” he said. “Good job, Kyo.”

Kyo didn’t say anything. Because his cheeks were warm and he hadn’t done that much, really. Had barely done anything at all, actually. But there was a strange, warm feeling blossoming in his chest like a flower and he liked that feeling.

Kazuma fetched a knife from the kitchen and slit the bag open. Then Kyo was in charge of holding it open whilst Kazuma lifted the end so that the sand spilled out onto the sheet. Within minutes, there was an expanse of the golden stuff, almost filling the whole of the sheet.

His own beach. With no sea. Because he had been good, apparently.

He stepped onto it – he hadn’t bothered to put shoes on to come outside – and his bare toes sunk into it. It was as smooth as silk. He took a few more steps, as though he was a cat exploring a new home. It wasn’t quite like the beach. This stuff was too dry for sandcastles, and he wouldn’t be able to dig very far without hitting the bottom.

But Kazuma was trying so hard – too hard – to make Kyo happy. He was watching him now – and Kyo looked up to see those chocolate brown eyes looked as soft as the sand. And he was smiling, slightly – and there was that warm blossoming feeling.

Kyo thought it might be pride – that he was feeling proud – but that would be silly.

Kazuma saw him watching, and looking away. Rubbed the back of his neck, just under where his ponytail sat.

“And now that our beach is ready, we can set the fireworks up,” he said.

Just as he turned to go, Kyo caught the side of his kimono. Didn’t pull hard, but Kazuma still stopped. And there was still a smile on his face, as though he had expected this.

“We won’t be able to see them in the day,” Kyo said.

“Oh?” Kazuma blinked down at him. The smile was gone, but Kyo had seen it – knew he was falling right into one of Kazuma’s obvious traps. “How silly of me not to realise. It’s a good job one of us is smart.”

He wasn’t. They both knew Kyo wasn’t. And even though he thought he wanted to fall into the trap – to see Kazuma tap his forehead and roll his eyes in a pantomime of embarrassment – he felt an all too familiar anger rising.

“Ah – and I should have realised – you can’t make sandcastles with this stuff, can you?” Kazuma continued. He leant down and ran his fingers across the sand, leaving four tiny mountains and valleys there. “I could bring out some water – and we can see if that works.”

Kyo shook his head. “This is fine.”

“And seashells.” Kazuma rocked back on his heels and now he did look embarrassed. “This is nothing like the beach at all, is it?”

“I said it’s fine!” Kyo snapped.

And realised that he had a moment later. He bit his lip – hung his head – prepared to get a tap around the head and a yell not to be so rude.

None of them came. And he needed to stop expecting things to be the same as they were, Kyo thought. Because nothing was the same anymore. Kazuma was different. He was looking at Kyo with concerned eyebrows, as though it was his turn not to believe him.

That didn’t mean that he didn’t feel bad. If anything, he felt worse that he had snapped out and hadn’t been snapped at back.

“It’s fine,” he repeated, then looked around him. There was a stick not too far from the white sheet, and he brought it back. “Look – I can still do this.”

He drew the first thing that he thought of. The first thing that he always thought of. A fried egg. And he could feel Kazuma watching him. Watching the end of the stick tremble slightly.

Kazuma shuffled. So that he sat next to Kyo and the sand fell away from them in a tiny landslide.

“Can I try?” Kazuma asked, when Kyo was done. He held out his hand for the stick.

Kyo passed it over. And watched as Kazuma drew wavy lines next to the egg. Added lines inside. That was when Kyo realised – it was bacon. To go with the eggs.

He blinked at Kazuma. Who glanced at Kyo with soft eyes, before drawing something else.

He spoke as he did it, “there once was a man –“ And Kazuma drew a stick man in the sand. “Who lived in a cave.” He added the circle around it. “And it was full of flies.”

As Kazuma added dots either side of the man, Kyo scrunched up his nose. Kazuma laughed, continuing to draw slowly – he added another semi-circle on top, with two dots in, and then two long, floppy shapes either side.

“And his name was Bruno.” Kazuma drew in the name as he added a collar to the dog.

Kyo blinked at it. Then he looked up at Kazuma, not letting himself think about the fact that he was smiling. He wasn’t sure why, but it was getting harder to stay cynical and sulky around Kazuma, when he was trying so hard. The fact that he was made it harder and harder for Kyo to believe that something was going to go wrong.

Because why would this man go to all this trouble if he didn’t like Kyo, even with him being grumpy and sulky?

*

They smashed the watermelons in the afternoon. Kunimitsu came out an helped them. Kyo suspected that he deliberately missed the watermelon several times, swinging wildly until Kyo laughed. Because then he hit down on it with surprising accuracy.

And Kyo suspected that Kazuma’s foot nudged the watermelon when it was Kyo’s turn. Because he had never hit the watermelon first time like that. Even so, there was such a surge of triumph through him at doing it. And both Kazuma and Kunimitsu told him he’d done a good job, which made that blossoming feeling return.

He sat and ate the watermelon as he watched the two men set up the fireworks. (It was, apparently, his reward for hitting the watermelon first time, but he suspected it was more to do with Kazuma worrying about the danger.) Red juice dribbled down the side of his tanned wrist. Kyo licked it off, and spat the seeds into the grass. Maybe they would grow – and then they could have watermelons whenever they wanted. It was evening, now, and the sky was starting to drop dark. The oranges and ambers of the afternoon sky cooling to dusty pinks and lavenders.

Kazuma sat one side of him, and tucked into the watermelon too. He was more messy than Kyo was, and that made him feel a little satisfied.

Kunimitsu sat on his other side. He put a hand to his heart when he saw Kyo.

“Look at all that red!” he cried. “You look like a little vampire, Kyo-kun.”

Kyo glared at him, feeling his hackles rise even though he knew it was teasing. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and it came away sticky with watermelon juice.

“Ah! Kazuma-san!” Kunimitsu clutched his chest with both hands now, acting as though he was struggling for breath. “Kyo’s attacking me with his vampire glare! I’m – help – I’m dying!”

He fell backwards, into the pile of sand with a soft thump. It scattered around him, as though it was running away. And despite how he didn’t like the teasing, he found himself smiling.

“It was all part of my plan to get rid of you.” Kazuma was smiling too. “Now Kyo will be my dojo assistant.”

“No – Kazuma-san!” Kunimitsu sat bolt upright again, his eyes wide. “You can’t replace me!”

Kyo didn’t think about it, because thinking about things made it harder. He stuck his tongue out at Kunimitsu, still smiling.

And again, Kunimitsu fell backwards as though he had been shot, crying out.

Kazuma chuckled, and put his hand on Kyo’s shoulder. If it had been any other day, he would have shrugged it off. Definitely glared, and maybe snapped. But he had a stomach full of watermelon and he was sat on a beach without the sea, with fireworks ready to go all around him.

So, he leant back against him. Against Kazuma’s chest so that his arm went all the way behind Kyo’s shoulder and he was completely pressed to the side of him. Probably getting watermelon juice all down the pale clothes, but Kazuma had dripped half of it onto himself, anyway. Kazuma still smelt of mint, and Kyo found that he was starting to like it. Not as much as vanilla, but it wasn’t so bad.

Once Kunimitsu had recovered, ruffling Kyo’s hair and grinning at him – and not saying anything about the colour, Kyo realised with relief – they finished the watermelon.

“Now,” Kazuma said, gently. “I think it’s time for fireworks.”

That made Kyo realised that Kazuma was about to stand up. His fist clenched in his kimono, tugging slightly. A silent ask for him to stay – and there was no way that he was looking up at Kazuma now. The hand squeezed down on his shoulder – and it was comforting. All those times Kyo had tugged before had made it feel comforting when Kazuma quietly acknowledged him.

Maybe the two grown ups exchanged a look, because Kyo heard Kunimitsu give a theatrical sigh.

“And I suppose the lowly slave will have to do the job of lighting them,” he said.

“Unless you want Kyo-kun to use his vampire glare on you,” Kazuma replied.

Kyo turned further into him, to hide his grin.

Kunimitsu got to his feet and found the matches, before he headed into the garden. It was darker now, so that the yellow light from the house only illuminated a semicircle. The light was only on Kyo’s private beach and he liked that. Liked stretching his bare feet out in the sand and watching it fall between his toes.

It was only a minute or two later that the first firework went off. It was a blue one, scattering itself into the sky like a flower. A blossom, Kyo thought, like the blossoms he kept feeling in his chest.

Two more followed in quick succession – two red ones. And all three left marks in the sky behind them that Kyo only saw when he blinked.

This was good. It was better than his other Summers. Because other Summers had involved his mother constantly checking his bracelet. Involved keeping away from his father. Involved keeping away from other children. Keeping away from the ocean.

Now he wasn’t keeping away from anything. It was the opposite – he was pressed against Kazuma like a tiny child.

A rocket went off next in a burst of tiny stars.

“You keep saying good job,” Kyo murmured. Keeping his face to the sky, where the air could cool his cheeks. “But that’s a lie.”

Two more red ones, now, and Kyo could see the dark silhouette of Kunimitsu as he stepped back to admire his handywork.

“No,” Kazuma said. “It’s not.”

“I just did what you asked.”

“You did it well.”

Kyo shook his head. A green firework appeared, and it looked as though light was raining down in the sky.

“Well isn’t good,” he said. And he was starting to remember that it was something his Mum would say – when he did the bare minimum, and in a moment, he realised why. “How can I believe you if you always say that what I do is good? How will I know if it really is good?”

Kazuma didn’t miss a beat. He never missed a beat with Kyo – for however obvious he was.

“Because I’ll use great instead of good.”

Kyo frowned. He made a small, dissatisfied sound in the back of his throat. And he felt, rather than heard, Kazuma chuckle underneath him, as another rocket lit up the sky.

“Alright,” he said, softly. As soft as the stars raining down. “I will try and use the word good only when you’ve done a good job. But it’s hard – I think that you do good a lot of the time.”

Kyo scrunched up his nose. “Why?”

“I don’t know.” But Kazuma’s tone implied that he did. That he did know, and he wasn’t telling Kyo the truth. Maybe Kyo knew too, he thought, as the final three fireworks set off in unison. Red, green, blue.

Parents felt proud of their kids. No matter how they did.

His parents hadn’t been like that, but he had heard a lot of grown ups talk about stuff like that before.

“And I meant it,” Kazuma continued. He pressed Kyo, gently, closer to him. “When I said you’ve been a good boy. For the most part.”

Because Kyo was still getting into trouble. Still starting fights because there was still a black hole inside him. And maybe that was the ‘circumstances,’ that Kazuma had meant earlier. He wasn’t sure if he could completely believe it still.

He leant into Kazuma’s chest, so that his bangs flopped over his face and no one could see his face. Because maybe his eyes were a little damp.

But also because his belly was warm and full. Because if he closed his eyes he could still see stars. And there was soft sand under his feet. This was the kind of Summer day that he thought only happened on T.V. It was his perfect Summer day, and Kazuma had done it all for him. Regardless of whether or not he had been good. Because that was something parents did too.

It was truly night now. And Kyo let his eyelids stay closed. He told himself that it was to see the stars for as long as he could. But it was also because Kazuma was warm, and Kyo could feel his heartbeat under his ear. It wasn’t that he was tired.

Because he didn’t quite fall asleep when he heard Kunimitsu’s voice again. Heard him talking in a low murmur to Kazuma and felt the rumble in Kazuma’s chest as he replied. Kyo was still awake when he felt himself be shuffled around. When he felt Kazuma carrying him inside, his head on his shoulder and his legs dangling down.

It was because Kyo was trying too hard to hide how much he cared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N): I started this back in February (I think?) when I first started reading the Summer Holiday arc and kind of forgot about it until a few days ago. So I finished it off and thought this fic would be a good place to put it.  
> I don't really have any /note/ notes so thank you all so much for reading and commenting - I didn't expect this fic to really gain any kind of attention so it's really nice to see!   
> I hope you enjoyed this kind of a bonus chapter xx

**Author's Note:**

> (A/N): I have a couple other ideas with dad!Kazuma getting used to his prickly new son but this has been a WIP for so long that I can't guarantee that I'll come back to it any time soon (or at all). But - yeah - I just wanted to write some good found family. (And I have a few other ideas that I got whilst re-watching the reboot, so hopefully a lot more Fruits Basket content in the future.  
> Thank you all very much for reading and thank you for any kudos/comments/shares!  
> My tumblr is turnupsdrawssometimes  
> And my instagram/twitter is turntups x


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